The chance of Richmond reasking its residents a few proposed on line casino resort improved over the weekend. That’s after the Virginia Basic Meeting opted to not embody a provision into its price range invoice that might have prevented the capital metropolis from holding one other gaming referendum till at the least November 2024.
Virginia Home of Delegates Speaker Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah) gravels the chamber to order on Sept. 7, 2022. The Virginia Basic Meeting adjourned for 2023 with out passing laws or a price range provision blocking Richmond from holding a gaming referendum in November. (Picture: AP)
In the course of the November 2021 election, Richmond voters narrowly rejected a proposed mission known as One On line casino + Resort. The greater than $500 million proposal got here from City One, a Black-focused media conglomerate primarily based in DC, along side gaming operator Peninsula Pacific Leisure (P2E).
Richmonders voted 51-49% in opposition to the mission. Of the 5 cities that certified to contemplate a on line casino to spur native financial exercise via Virginia’s 2020 business gaming invoice, Richmond was the one metropolis to vote in opposition to the chance.
The Richmond Metropolis Council and Mayor Levar Stoney (D) wish to current the gaming referendum once more. They hope {that a} extra coordinated message hyping the regional advantages that the on line casino would supply will tip the vote in One On line casino’s favor. However state Sen. Joe Morrissey (D-Richmond), whose district encompasses close by Petersburg, desires to permit that metropolis to contemplate a on line casino as an alternative.
Petersburg Odds Lengthen
Petersburg has partnered with Baltimore-based Cordish Corporations on a on line casino resort effort. However Cordish says it’s solely if Richmond received’t open its personal gaming vacation spot.
The Basic Meeting’s Joint Legislative Audit & Assessment Fee decided that casinos could possibly be worthwhile working concurrently in Richmond and Petersburg. However every can be considerably extra profitable with out the opposite. The state is more likely to permit just one on line casino within the Richmond-Petersburg metro space.
Morrissey efficiently satisfied his state colleagues final yr to incorporate a provision within the state’s fiscal price range invoice that prevented Richmond from internet hosting one other native gaming referendum till at the least this November. He sought to once more embody such a price range tack-on this yr. However the strongly divided legislature — Democrats controlling 22 of the Senate’s 40 seats, and Republicans occupying 52 of the 100 Home of Delegate seats — was deadlocked whereas discussing a lot of this yr’s fiscal blueprint.
With a powerful partisan divide, the price range discussions centered on polarizing points, comparable to abortion and gun rights. Laws and price range provisions continuously handed one chamber, solely to be stalled within the different.
The Basic Meeting ultimately authorized a “skinny” price range invoice that gives crucial funding, however little pork.
Richmond Cleared for Revote
The Virginia Basic Meeting adjourned on Saturday to mark the top of the legislature’s 46-day session. With no provision blocking Richmond from conducting one other on line casino referendum, town seems cleared to carry such a revote.
City One officers say the corporate stays concerned with constructing its first on line casino. However its improvement associate has switched from P2E to Churchill Downs, Inc. Churchill acquired Peninsula Pacific’s belongings final yr for practically $2.5 billion.
Churchill Downs has significantly better title recognition than P2E, primarily due to its namesake racetrack that’s dwelling to the Kentucky Derby. The agency’s involvement is perhaps higher suited to win over among the extra prosperous voters within the capital metro space.
Richmond’s 2021 on line casino vote was largely cut up amongst financial boundaries, with the lower-income neighborhoods voting in favor of the proposed Black-owned enterprise. Richmond’s wealthier areas north of the James River strongly opposed the on line casino.
